With Shabbat approaching, I know my heart is turned again towards the East; the same anticipation and anxiety is building as last week. I am waiting with bated breath, wondering who will come home this week, whether they are alive, healthy. I imagine the families waiting even more urgently. How, I wonder, are we meant to wait through this?
There is a Talmudic teaching about Shabbat and its preparation that might give us a way forward through these days. In talking about how to get ready for Shabbat, the ancient rabbi, Shammai, gives us one option. Knowing that the Shabbat meal is meant to be one of ultimate joy, he would begin thinking about it not on Thursday—but all week long… how Jewish! Shopping at the market then, he would find the choicest meats and the freshest fruits, and put them aside for Shabbat. But, if he found another one choicer than it, he would set aside the second [for Shabbat] and eat the first.
As always, Hillel—his intellectual sparring partner—had a different method. Rather than focus on what was ahead, he centered himself on the idea of blessing God each and every day. If Hillel found a nice piece of meat on Tuesday, he ate that piece of meat on Tuesday; there was no need, he argued, to save it for Shabbat. We can honor the Divine by celebrating everyday moments as well.
While the Talmud, as is almost always the case, thinks that Hillel’s approach is the right one—I think we, maybe especially for this week, can learn from both. We can, like Shammai, look ahead—to Shabbat, but also to more hostages coming home… and we can celebrate moments that inspire us each and every day.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer